The Fangover Read Online Free PDF Page B

this time the piercing screech was followed by the sound of footfalls and a frenzied commotion of someone tearing down Cort’s hallway.
    Cort, Wyatt, and Saxon all sat upright as a woman dashed wildly into the room. She stopped just inside the doorway, her hair wild, her eyes huge, and her whole body heaving with panicked breaths. Her terrified gaze moved over each of them, but no one spoke. Only her uneven breathing reverberated through the room
    Finally Saxon made a snorting sound and stated, “That was unexpected.”
    Cort frowned, even though he didn’t totally disagree, but then he returned his attention to the woman, who he was starting to recognize behind her tangle of honey-colored hair.
    “Katie?” he said tentatively.
    She made a small noise, which he wasn’t sure was agreement or just more panic, but he didn’t need her to confirm. He knew it was Katie. He’d spent enough time watching her to recognize her even in this disheveled state.
    Katie Lambert, the washboard player from the day band at the bar where The Impalers played at night. He couldn’t say they were friends exactly, but he certainly knew her. They’d spoken many times, and he was always aware when she’d stay after her set was done and watch them play. She was hard to miss with her pretty, pixielike face and infectious smile.
    Hell, he could even admit that a couple of times he’d imagined what it would be like to take her to bed. Okay, more than a couple—more like dozens. And dozens.
    But that still didn’t explain what she was doing in his apartment. Looking like . . . damn, what had happened to her?
    Even though he was in pain and really didn’t want to move—maybe ever—Cort eased himself off the couch and started toward her, his movements slow, partly because of feeling like shit and partly because she looked like she might bolt if he approached her too quickly.
    “Katie? Are you okay?” he asked softly.
    She stared at him, her eyes frantic and glassy. He wasn’t sure she’d even heard him, then she shook her head.
    “Not really.”
    Her response was oddly calm, given all the screaming she’d been doing—unless that hadn’t been her.
    Dear God, please don’t let there be more than one hysterical woman in his apartment.
    Cort pushed that horrifying thought aside. “What’s wrong? Do you know what you are doing here?”
    Maybe she knew what clearly none of his friends did, but she quickly dashed that hope.
    “I don’t know,” she said, her voice reedy. “I woke up in someone’s room, but I have no idea how I got here.”
    In someone’s bedroom. That meant either his bed, or his roommate, Drake’s, and truthfully neither option sat well with Cort.
    “But—but I seem to have a larger—problem,” she said, her usually upbeat and happy voice trembling.
    “What?” Cort’s stomach churned, this time not at the threat of losing his lack of lunch, but because obviously something awful happened to her. And he might have been there and didn’t even remember what it was.
    She hesitated, then straightened as if bracing herself. She swept the mass of blonde hair away from her very pale face and looked at each of the men in the room, then back to Cort.
    “You are going to think I’m absolutely insane,” she said. “But I seem to be”—she paused, clearly not knowing how to go on, but finally she just blurted it out—“I think I’m a vampire.”
    Cort was certain she expected some sort of reaction to her statement, but he highly doubted it was the one she got.
    “What the hell,” Wyatt said. “We’ve always said no crossing over coworkers. We don’t shit in our own backyard.”
    “I didn’t do it,” Saxon said, shaking his head adamantly, his eyes wide. “Man, I didn’t do it. No way, dude. Nooo way.”
    “I sure as hell didn’t do it,” came a raspy voice from behind Katie, which caused her to jump and scurry over to stand beside Cort.
    Drake walked into the room, looking no better than the rest